The present invention relates to inclusion products containing or consisting of one or a plurality of flavoring materials and a maltodextrin fraction, and preparations or semi-finished products containing said inclusion products to be used for nutrition or for pleasure. A method for preparing inclusion products according to the invention is also provided according to the invention. The invention further relates to maltodextrin fractions, in particular those that are suitable for preparing inclusion products according to the invention, and corresponding uses of maltodextrin fractions according to the invention.
Flavoring materials are mainly volatile compounds, which have high loss rates during storage or during processing in the food industry, for example through volatilization, evaporation, vaporization, steam distillation and oxidation. Owing to these aforementioned and other negative circumstances, in the most varied of applications, flavoring materials often have inadequate stability, so that for example the intensity of flavor perceived during consumption may decrease, the flavor profile may change and there may possibly be formation of off-flavors with an undesirable taste.
For stabilization of flavoring materials, in the known prior art mainly additives, for example antioxidants are included, and/or the flavoring materials are protected by encapsulation. However, additives should only be used if their use is absolutely necessary, and even then the amount used should be as small as possible. Moreover, antioxidants as such do not as a rule contribute to a decrease in volatility of flavoring materials.
In food technology there is a constant need to stabilize flavorings against processing steps. It is important in particular to provide flavorings that remain stable at the high temperatures usually employed in food processing and that do not lose their intensity or form any undesirable off-flavors. For supplying suitably stabilized flavorings there is sometimes an attempt to encapsulate them in the most varied materials, for example by absorption in yeast ghosts, or by inclusion or dispersion in a carrier matrix.
US 2010/196542 A1 discloses a method of encapsulation in which leguminous starch is processed to a maltodextrin fraction and/or glucose syrup and is used for encapsulating hydrophobic organic compounds. The compounds can be mixed with the maltodextrin fraction and/or dehydrogenated glucose syrup in a kneader. However, this has the disadvantage that the further processing of highly viscous kneaded masses is costly, and this also applies in particular to drying thereof on an industrial scale, i.e. in the preparation of amounts of product of more than 20 kg, preferably more than 50 kg and particularly preferably more than 100 kg. A process is also described for spray-dried limonene, wherein the limonene is taken up in an aqueous solution of an emulsifier and of the maltodextrin fraction and/or glucose syrup. The water content of the mixture prior to spray-drying is not stated. No inclusion compounds in the sense of this invention are formed.
WO2006/106519 A2 and WO 2006/106520 A2 each disclose hydrophilic dispersions, which contain nanoparticles of a hydrophilic inclusion complex with active substances, and the production of said dispersions. With the starting substances and methods stated therein it is not, however, possible to produce any inclusion compounds that can be dried extremely economically. In fact, the starting substances used lead to high viscosity in water, so that during production with the usual food processing equipment it is necessary to use a large amount of water. This has to be removed, which leads to large losses of active substances and/or high energy consumption.
PCT/EP2010/057365 discloses the preparation of inclusion compounds of flavoring materials with polymers of glucose and/or glucose-like monomers.
In addition to the usually high water content that is required or, at low water content, the high viscosity of the materials to be processed for including flavorings in carriers and therefore the economically disadvantageous manner of preparing said inclusion products, another disadvantage is that flavorings encapsulated in this way are as a rule released very slowly during consumption, so that the perception of flavor in the first few seconds of consumption (also called “flavor impact”) is slight. However, at the time of consumption, the flavor should be perceived as quickly as possible, in order to produce a good impression.
Impact in the sense of this invention is defined as the quotient of the intensity of flavor of an encapsulated flavoring material to the intensity of flavor of the unencapsulated (original) flavoring materials, the flavor intensities being determined as follows. The intensity of flavor of the original flavoring materials (or mixtures thereof) is determined at a usual dosage in 10 ml water (20° C.) by tasting on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1=not perceptible and 10=extremely strong. The intensity of flavor is determined 3 seconds after taking in, without swallowing the sample. After neutralization of taste, the sample is tasted with the sample of the encapsulated flavoring material to be investigated. The sample quantity is to be established so that the sample contains overall the same amount of flavoring material as the original flavoring material that was tasted first. The sample is put in 10 ml water (20° C.), immediately stirred vigorously for 10 seconds with a spatula and then tasted immediately. The intensity of flavor is also determined 3 seconds after taking in. According to the invention, the impact determined in this way is preferably >0.5, particularly preferably >0.7 and quite particularly preferably >0.85.